The book is out, the book tour is over, and we’re all on to finishing other novels and getting our lives back for a nanosecond.  We certainly don’t have time to plan another collaboration, at least not for another year, and we’d be insane to start talking about it now, but . . . Read more

We just got the news - in its first week out of the gate, Dogs and Goddesses hit #88 on the USA Today and #29 on the NYT! We’re very excited, and wanted to say thanks to all of you who have been here putting up with our antics from the beginning. Yay!

Tonight, we got together in Campfire to do a chat for you guys, discussing the collaborating process.

WARNING: There be spoilers. We got a little blue with the content. And it’s really, really funny so maybe put the Diet Coke down for a minute. We’ll be back with more Campfires this week as we discuss the book tour and other exciting stuff going on in Ohio. Enjoy!

Krissie O.:  Hi, Lani
Jenny C.: Hi, guys.
Krissie O.: Hi, Miz Jenny
Lani D.: Hello, girls.
Jenny C.: So we’re talking about collaboration tonight.
Jenny C.: I’m for it.
Lani D.: So. Collaboration.
Jenny C.: So, Mesopotamia.

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I know it’s wrong of me, but I freaking adore Mina.  Yes, she’s immoral and vicious and ultimately homicidal, and if she had a heart it would be in the wrong place, but she grew up thinking she was Death, and not in a fun goth kind of way.   Of course, that makes her MVP in her family, but not to her mother, the jealous Miriam who waited her whole life for Kammani to rise only to see herself supplanted by the daughter she thinks is inferior.  

So Mina has Issues. Read more

My favorite under-goddess was Gen, queen of fertility.  We had Bun and Gen, pregnancy and fertility.  Their names were not coincidental.  At first glance Bun and Gen are interchangeable — two giggly girls with silly dogs and not a full IQ between the two of them.  Looks are deceiving.  While Bun is pretty simple — guardian of pregnancy and birth — Gen is more complicated.  For one thing, she’s a second cousin to Christopher Mackenzie, and despite his less than warm demeanor she loves and defends him.  Always a good sign.

For another, she’s got enough sense to recognize that Mina is a Very Bad Girl, and that Abby is clearly her role model.  Abby is the goddess of hunger and beginnings, two things that any goddess of fertility needs.  Gen knows enough to come to Abby when she’s frightened, and of course she’s gifted in the kitchen, being a goddess of bringing things together to create something new.  Having Abby and Gen in the bakery is a brilliant and scary thing, and the town of Summerville is going to be very happy as long as they keep cooking.

Gen also knows that Christopher is The One for Abby, no matter how she fights it.  And deep down, that’s part of why Abby loves her.  Because Gen knows the truth that Abby’s so busy fighting.

Bun’s going to have a dozen children.  Gen is going to have a dozen careers, all of them brilliant, including midwife, fertility expert, architect, caterer, and daschsund breeder.  And she’ll make sure all of the goddesses have as many babies as they want, even Shar.

There’s something I need to cop to right off the bat. I love crazy mothers.

I’m not sure why. I mean, in my writing, I see certain things pop up over and over again. Independent bookstores, love those, have ‘em in Time Off for Good Behavior and Ex and the Single Girl. Reunion love stories - totally dig them; Maybe Baby, The Comeback Kiss, A Little Ray of Sunshine. I even get thematic in crimes, got me some arson in both The Comeback Kiss and Wish You Were Here.

But crazy mothers? Every damn book. Even in Wish You Were Here, where I thought I’d busted the curve because the heroine’s mother was dead (ha HA!), I realized that I gave Nate’s little girl, Piper, a crazy mother (oh). In Crazy In Love, I almost squeak by on a technicality - Flynn’s got a crazy (and dead) great aunt who haunts her throughout the book. Eh… judges rule…

Crazy mother. So close.

What can I say? Probably nothing that wouldn’t be better said to a therapist.

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Hey, all! As promised, we’ll be kicking off the Dogs and Goddesses World Tour with a trip to BarnesandNoble.com for their Dogs and Goddesses book club. Come join us!

A little more than two years since the idea first sparked, and here we are at publication day! Head out to your favorite bookstore and get a copy of Dogs and Goddesses today, and then be sure to come back here for more behind-the-scenes goodness as we hit BarnesandNoble.com for a special bookclub discussion, and then embark on the D&G World Tour (well, if by “world” you mean “Ohio and Kentucky” but really… what else is there, anyway?) It’s nothing but good times ahead!

Just ask the reviewers: we got starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist, too!

From Booklist:

Dogs and Goddesses (starred review!)

Crusie, Jennifer (Author) and Stuart, Anne (Author) and Rich, Lani Diane (Author)

Feb 2009. 400 p. St. Martin’s, paperback, $7.99. (9780312944377).

Abby Richmond had come to Summerville, Ohio, to sell the bakery she just inherited from her grandmother, but when she decides to attend the Kammani Gula dog-obedience class being held at the local college, she meets Web designer Daisy Harris and Professor Shar Summer. After drinking some of Kammani’s special “tonic,” Abby, Daisy, and Shar not only hear their dogs talking but each woman finds she has been given a unique power. Once the three discover they are pawns in a plot concocted by a 4,000-year-old, very cranky Mesopotamian goddess who plans on ruling the world, Abby, Daisy, and Shar (along with the new men in their lives) team up to stop her. Equal measures of sexy romance, captivating characters, and clever writing give Jennifer Crusie, Anne Stuart, and Lani Diane Rich’s collaborative effort its splendidly original flavor. With its uniquely talented trio of authors, uniquely resourceful trio of heroines, rich cast of quirky secondary characters (including one of the best villainesses ever written), and wickedly witty writing, Dogs and Goddesses is absolutely sublime.

— John Charles

And PW again because once is never enough for a starred review:

Dogs and Goddesses
Jennifer Crusie, Anne Stuart and Lani Diane Rich.
St.Martin’s Paperbacks, $7.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-312-94437-7

Don’t be put off by the talking dogs; clever (human) dialogue and sassy heroines make this joint novel an amusing standout. After meeting at a local dog obedience-training session, coffeehouse owner Abby, Web writer Daisy and history professor Shar become fast friends. They also discover that the dog trainer is the Mesopotamian goddess Kammani, determined to rule the world like she did 4,000 years ago. Chosen as Kammani’s priestesses, Abby, Daisy and Shar aren’t quite ready to support the goddess’s destructive goals, even when she grants them magical powers including the ability to understand their dogs. Established authors Crusie (Charlie All Night), Stuart (Fire and Ice) and Rich (Wish You Were Here) turn this quirky charmer into an enjoyable paranormal romp that’s definitely not just for dog lovers. (Feb.)

If anybody ever asks me again if I’ve ever based characters on real people, I can say, “Yes, Wolfie and Milton in Dogs and Goddesses.”

Wolfie’s been part of my life for a long time now, over eight years.  He was an inbred puppy mill dachshund who’d had three owners in his first year, so when I got him, he was a nervous wreck.   Now he’s calm but neurotic, a sort of stretched out Woody Allen, secure in his own rightness but anxious about everybody else.  Wolfie was also the inspiration for Steve in Faking It, but he was younger and tenser then.  The Dogs and Goddesses Wolfie represents the real Wolfie in the twenty-first century.  He’s the alpha dog but he’s not going to be a jerk about it, a little nervous but not insane any more, and patient in the face of a new arrival to the pack.

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